Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

CHARACTER OF THE COURTIERS.141

series of their hearts. On the contrary, the Eussian courtiers glory in the abject meanness of their souls. The flatterer here shuffles his cards upon the table, and I am only astonished that he can win anything in a game so palpable to all the world. In the presence of the emperor the asthmatic breathes, the paralysed becomes active, the gouty loses his pain, the lovers no longer burn, the young men no longer seek to amuse themselves, the men of mind no longer think. In lieu of all these human states, mental and physical, one combined sentiment of avarice and vanity animates life even to its latest sigh. These two passions are the breath of all courts; but here they impart to their victims a military emulation, a disciplined rivalry, whose agitating influences extend throughout all the stages of society. To rise a step by more carefully dancing attendance — such is the absorbing thought of this etiquette-instructed crowd.

But then, what prostration of strength, when the luminary in whose beam these flattering motes may be seen to move, is no longer above the horizon ! It is like the evening dew quenching the dust, or the nuns in Kobert le Diable, again repairing to their sepulchres, to wait the signal for another round.

"With this continual stretch of all minds towards advancement, conversation is impossible. The eyes of the Russian courtiers are the sunflowers of the palace. They speak without interesting themselves in anything that is said, and their looks remain all the while fascinated by the sun of favour.

The absence of the emperor does not render conversation more free: he is still present to the mind. The thoughts, instead of the eyes, then become the